


a leader leads

by djcati



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: New Jedi Order Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-13
Updated: 2012-08-13
Packaged: 2017-11-12 01:52:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/485350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djcati/pseuds/djcati
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The Order can't wait for a great Jedi Knight to lead it. [...] Every Jedi has to be his own light, because the light shouldn't go out when one Jedi dies."</p>
            </blockquote>





	a leader leads

**Author's Note:**

> More of my AU headcanon where Anakin survives and later trains Valin. I should put all these pieces together and write a proper fic at some point.

"We should be out there too. Fighting."

It's all Anakin can do not to snort with amusement. Valin sounds so young and righteously indignant and exactly like Anakin himself at that age.

(Less than four years ago. It feels like a lifetime.)

"You should be concentrating on your studies."

Valin rolls his eyes. "Are you _trying_ to sound like Kam?"

"There are worse role models."

Valin makes a sound a lot like a _hmph_ , which Anakin ignores; and then stands, which Anakin doesn't. He stands as well, more slowly, and watches the younger boy head for the hangar exit.

But Valin stops a few metres from it and turns back to say, "You _want_ to be out there again. I don't even have to use the Force to know that."

To deny it would just be insulting. Valin's fifteen, but he's not a child; none of them are really children anymore. Instead, Anakin closes his eyes and just breathes for a moment.

"See?"

"Valin, do you know what a real leader does?"

"He _leads_!"

"He knows when he's more of a burden than a help. When he's going to get more people killed than he can save. When he _can't_ lead."

Anakin senses Valin's uncertainty, sees it in the boy's face when he opens his eyes again. It's a knock to his pride that he's not such a flawless hero in Valin's eyes anymore, that he's fallen from that pedestal -- but that's what he needs. What _everyone_ needs. He can't be their hero; he can't be the poster boy of the Jedi Order. Because if everyone thought all hopes rested on him, what would have happened if he'd died at Myrkr?


End file.
